June 8 Prince of Whales, Newburyport

What a bizarre day on the water! We began our journey to Jeffreys Ledge in beautiful conditions and clear skies. As we got closer to the Ledge, the haze became more like fog and the wind began to pick up, making our job of finding whales much more difficult!

Thanks to our friends on the Atlantic Queen, we headed to an area where they had seen some fin whales earlier in the day. We approached and found numerous huge patches of bait fish, a dogfish (shark) and several species of pelagic birds! Suddenly, in the fog, we were very lucky to spot a blow and fin of one whale. That whale soon disappeared into the haze. But as the day progressed, we ended up finding at least 4 different whales in the area!  Check out the various dorsal fins below.

 One of these whales has been identified as #0945, a whale first seen by BOS researchers in 2009. The rest are still being worked on and the one below is likely to be ID'ed soon. Note the scratches in the last image- they signify that this whale had been entangled in fishing gear at some point prior.  We are happy to say this whale is doing just fine today! **This just in- the whale below has been ID'ed as #0252, a whale first seen by BOS researchers in 2000!

Thanks to our group of students from Cutler! Great to have you back again for another trip! And also thanks to all of our other passengers for bearing with us in the fog to make this trip great!


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